11 weeks.

ok, i'm done complaining.  yes, everyone's been sick and yes, we've missed out on a lot of sleep these past few days BUT i think everyone's on the mend and as of last monday i have a happy baby.  

the first month with ellie was pretty easy.  we had lots of visitors to help, charlie was off for the holidays, and she was that super sleepy newborn that fell asleep anywhere and everywhere.  and then around 5 weeks she started to get really, really fussy in the evenings.  and by fussy i mean screaming baby.  and nothing really seemed to help.  she didn't want to nurse, she's refused every pacifier that i've tried, and she didn't want to be put down.  the only thing that sort of helped was holding her and walking around the house.  this didn't really stop the crying but it made it quieter crying.  

i'm not one of those people who can be all relaxed about my baby crying.  it stresses me out and once the pattern was established i started to dread the evenings.  especially when charlie wasn't around and i found myself trying to feed and take care of a toddler with a screaming baby.  and then we had a few days where she just didn't sleep at all during the day.  and therefore was very, very unhappy all day long.  i figured out that her daytime sleep was linked to that first morning nap.  she was usually ready for it about an hour after being awake in the mornings and if she got it then she would be okay and nap the rest of the day but if she missed it then the rest of the day would be awful.  so now i make sure that no matter what she get's that first nap when she's tired.  she's still napping mostly in the moby wrap because it's hard to get her asleep with a rowdy toddler in the background and she does the awesome trick of waking up immediately after i put her down but we'll deal with that later.    

onto the good news.  it's now been about a week and ellie's been pretty happy in the evenings.  she still wants to be held constantly but i can so deal with that as long as she's happy.  let's keep this up, ellie.  no more evening scream sessions, okay?